38g Nuvo

[ramsey]

Yet another 38g Nuvo build! Just want to document my build/growth.

FTS - June 2013

21065

Hair algae finally let up enough to take a FTS!

Equipment:

38g Nuvo
Radion Pro
2 x MP10
Apex controller
IM mini reactor
Tunze osmolater ATO
Tunze 9004 skimmer
- Retired
Aquamaxx HOB-1
Rena auto feeder
InTank filter basket

Dosing/Filtration:
Zeolites
Zeobak
Zeofood7
Zeostart3
Zeo coral vitalizer
Zeo amino acids
Zeo phols extra
Tropic Marin pro-coral A-
Tropic Marin pro-coral K+
ESV seawater system
KZ carbon


Fish:

Tailspot blenny
Tangerine albino/ocellaris pair

Inverts:

Two sexy shrimp
Various LPS
various SPS
Maxi-mini anemone
Pin cushion urchin

Future plans:

Go SPS dominant - DONE

FTS 03/14:

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/28/ybupasyh.jpg

[Zack]

Are you using a doser or hand dosing your zeovit?

[ramsey]

I'm dosing by hand. To me, it's like feeding my fish. I know a lot of people don't like dosing everyday but I sort of enjoy it. :)

[Zack]

Where did you get your product from? And how much for your total investment in zeovit?

[ramsey]

Also, I'd love feedback on the scape. I wanted to go for the minimalistic look and have a "bonsai" on one side and a lot of openness on the other side. I'm planning on doing branching SPS on the open side, and more encrusting or tabling on the bonsai side. Sometimes I feel like it needs more rock, but I keep telling myself it won't once I have decent sized SPS colonies. :) Here's a left view:

21066

And from the right:

21067

I've never done an aquascape I've been happy with. I think it's like art, you never think the art you make is all that great.

[ramsey]

Where did you get your product from? And how much for your total investment in zeovit?

I bought it from a couple different places online. I can't remember where exactly. I'd say I have around $100 that I've spent on it but it's going to last a long time. The zeobak and zeofood is one drop every three days. One drop of amino's once a day along with 1ml of Phol's extra. At this rate, most of the stuff will expire before I use it all. I'm not running full zeo though, I'm doing a zeo/biopellet hybrid. I might switch to full zeo at some point, but that's still up in the air.

I haven't used it long enough to gauge any real results, but I like what I see so far. Hardcore polyp extension on the monti and nice growth. I've only had it a month and I noticed a difference after a few days of starting zeo. I have a gorgonian that's exploded in growth. Everything else is doing well and looks better but those two have been the most noticeable. Time will tell I guess.

[ramsey]

Oh yeah, I have these tiny feather dusters that exploded after I started the zeo.

[ramsey]

UPDATE: My monti cap started bleaching and lost some color and my birdnest got really pale. I think I may have been UNDERFEEDING my tank. I've increased feedings, removed the chemi-pure, stopped dosing zeobak and zeofood7 and moved both corals to lower light. I think it was either underfeeding (tank to clean) or too much light too fast. I have a few other SPS corals and they're looking great. The birdnest's color has started to come back and has great polyp extension. The cap has great polyp extension but it still looking rough. I've kept dosing phol's extra and AA's.

I found my pistol shrimp in the overflow. He's tiny but he's got an attitude! He was trying to pinch my finger off when i grabbed him and put him back in the display.

[ramsey]

Also, I've been using ESV dried phyto occasionally but started using it everyday for the past week - week and a half. Holy cow, POD EXPLOSION! This stuff looks like it works great!

[1seahorse]

Ramsey

I have a nuvo as well. I have 1 mp10 and have experimented to find out, I needed to dial it way down. Lol. So I'm impressed that you can use 2 in your setup. I have found that I was bleaching my corals if I used any more than 65% on my Radion 1st Gen. lol. So glad to hear yours Pro is working for you! I love your aquascape, I totally agree with you about finding a scape you like is hard since " you are your worts critic" Mine has changed a lot from day one, including my aquascape, I like a minimalist approach, which is nonconventional in reef tanks. lol. keep posting updates!

[ramsey]

Ramsey

I have a nuvo as well. I have 1 mp10 and have experimented to find out, I needed to dial it way down. Lol. So I'm impressed that you can use 2 in your setup. I have found that I was bleaching my corals if I used any more than 65% on my Radion 1st Gen. lol. So glad to hear yours Pro is working for you! I love your aquascape, I totally agree with you about finding a scape you like is hard since " you are your worts critic" Mine has changed a lot from day one, including my aquascape, I like a minimalist approach, which is nonconventional in reef tanks. lol. keep posting updates!

Thank you! Maybe it's too much light which caused the issue. I'm ramping up to 80% during the day. I'll try dialing that down. The way the Two pieces started bleaching made me think it was starvation or too much light. Now you got me wondering about light! :) thanks again for the feedback!

[ramsey]

I bought an aqua-mag rock and it came in today. I love the dimension it adds to the scape. It was well worth the $30.

21252

[ramsey]

Here's a couple of better pictures. I'm still fighting with my iPhone trying to get decent pics. The aqua-mag is going to look so amazing once it gets covered in coralline and other critters.

21256
21257

My tank's been doing phenomenal the past few days. Everything looks super happy and I have pods everywhere. I'm not changing a thing for a while, except adding some more coral.

[1seahorse]

21655

ran into this chart here of a Gen 1 and made me think of your post. The Pro chart almost triples the readings. Mr Salt Water tank did a segment on Radion G1-G2-Pro. He stated at the end if his video that the Max setting on his Pros over his 300+ gal tank is 25% intensity. They are very powerful PAR machines for sure!!! lol. since seeing this I have lowered mine to 20%. I'll see what happens. The hyper red coloring on my Acans and Scolymias were Turing orange/yellow color.

[ramsey]

21655

ran into this chart here of a Gen 1 and made me think of your post. The Pro chart almost triples the readings. Mr Salt Water tank did a segment on Radion G1-G2-Pro. He stated at the end if his video that the Max setting on his Pros over his 300+ gal tank is 25% intensity. They are very powerful PAR machines for sure!!! lol. since seeing this I have lowered mine to 20%. I'll see what happens. The hyper red coloring on my Acans and Scolymias were Turing orange/yellow color.

Things have done much better after turning down the lights. I would like to use a par meter to see exactly where I'm at. Thanks for the info!

[ramsey]

After battling this nasty brown dino stuff, I've finally just about gotten rid of all of it. It was smothering some corals and ticking them off. I'm not 100% sure what it was or what caused it but I think it was bacterial. I took my BP's offline and dosed h2O2. So it was a minor set back on the tank's progression. However, now that everything's under control, stuff is looking great. I've decide to ditch BP's altogether and go full Zeovit. I ordered all the additional supplements I need as well as zeolits and KZ carbon. I'm going to give it a shot and see how it does. I actually like dosing my tank and don't have any problem dosing daily.

I bought a new protein skimmer because I wasn't happy with the Tunze 9004. It skimmed but I just don't think it was enough for carbon dosing. I bout an Aquamaxx HOB skimmer and I'm really impressed so far. It hasn't even broken in yet and it's already skimming like crazy. It's also very solid and nicely built. I can already tell by the skimming it's already doing and the amount and size of bubbles that it's going to o the job.

Apart from that, I'm planning on finally setting up the 185g and it's going to be mostly softies and a few LPS. This should give me more space in the 38 for SPS. I've also decided to set up a frag/coral qt tank with a 20g long I have laying around. I'm going to keep it simple with a hang on back filter, a couple of korallia PH's and rig up an ATO. For fragging, it's going to be mostly zoas and palys. I want to start growing out some colonies then fragging them to put in my tanks. I think growing them out would work best in a frag tank. Any leftovers I'll probably use as trade material since I'm not looking to make money off of it and I'm not going to collect super rare expensive zoas. As I mentioned, it's also going to serve as a qt tank for new incoming corals. I know I could risk transferring pests or disease to all my frags but zoas are pretty hardy and it's generally pretty easy to kill off stuff. I also want to do a ghetto gyre flow in the frag tank. We'll see how that works out.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I'm going to see if I can get some pics up tonight.

[Scutterborn]

What BP reactor were you using?

[Big_Pun]

you dont think bio pellets didnt work properly due to crappy skimmer. they kill nitrates but the waste needs to be removed, i know my skimm turned black and stays that way after pellets kicked in.

[ramsey]

What BP reactor were you using?

I was using the IM mid sized reactor. It's a great reactor and I'll be using it for the zeolites. Due to it's design, it'll be easy to shake the zeolites once a day.


you dont think bio pellets didnt work properly due to crappy skimmer. they kill nitrates but the waste needs to be removed, i know my skimm turned black and stays that way after pellets kicked in.

I think that's exactly what happened. I think the amount of carbon was too much for the skimmer and fueled the blown slime bacteria. The new skimmer [1] is doing much, much better already. I wish I had just bought this one from the get go. I gave the Tunze a shot but it's overpriced crap (I love their ATO though). This one wasn't much more and is easily twice the skimmer, probably three times the skimmer. I've tried the IM skimmer and the Tunze 9004 and this one has been the best by far for a nano tank. I've learned that it's really hard to find a good skimmer for a nano AIO!

I want to try the full zeovit system and see what kind of results I get. It should allow me to fine tune how much carbon I'm dosing. It's freaking expensive for all the little blue bottles, but my tanks so small they'll last a long time. It's worth a shot and I'm hoping it'll let me tweak my SPS colors a bit. Zeovit and LEDs in a 38g tank, it's like the anti-big_pun tank. :P

[1] http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMaxx_HOB_1_Hang_On_Back_Protein_Skimmer_Hang_O n_Venturi_Needle_Wheel_Protein_Skimmers-AquaMaxx-UJ1151-FIPSHONW-vi.html

[Big_Pun]

I was using the IM mid sized reactor. It's a great reactor and I'll be using it for the zeolites. Due to it's design, it'll be easy to shake the zeolites once a day.



I think that's exactly what happened. I think the amount of carbon was too much for the skimmer and fueled the blown slime bacteria. The new skimmer [1] is doing much, much better already. I wish I had just bought this one from the get go. I gave the Tunze a shot but it's overpriced crap (I love their ATO though). This one wasn't much more and is easily twice the skimmer, probably three times the skimmer. I've tried the IM skimmer and the Tunze 9004 and this one has been the best by far for a nano tank. I've learned that it's really hard to find a good skimmer for a nano AIO!

I want to try the full zeovit system and see what kind of results I get. It should allow me to fine tune how much carbon I'm dosing. It's freaking expensive for all the little blue bottles, but my tanks so small they'll last a long time. It's worth a shot and I'm hoping it'll let me tweak my SPS colors a bit. Zeovit and LEDs in a 38g tank, it's like the anti-big_pun tank. :P

[1] http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMaxx_HOB_1_Hang_On_Back_Protein_Skimmer_Hang_O n_Venturi_Needle_Wheel_Protein_Skimmers-AquaMaxx-UJ1151-FIPSHONW-vi.html

one of them is 1 ml per 25 that one will go quick i went through it fast on the 25 cube.

[ramsey]

one of them is 1 ml per 25 that one will go quick i went through it fast on the 25 cube.

Phols Extra and Zeostart3 are both 1ml per 25g. I've been using Phols Extra for a couple of months and I still have most of a bottle left. I am under dosing it slightly though. Both bottles are 100ml so it should be around 100 days worth. Both of those are $20 a bottle. The one that really hurt was Coral Vitalizer. $50 for 50ml! That's expensive snake oil. :) I don't know bro, I want to give it a shot but it's an experiment. If I don't have awesome growth and colors, it'll be the last time I use it. It's also iffy in a nano tank. Most tanks that use zeo are big. In fact, most nice SPS tanks are big. I'm trying to do the impossible, I guess. I can assure you of one thing. If I'm not successful with SPS in this tank, I'm going to set up the 185g for SPS. I already got a huge skimmer. I'll trade the AI LEDs for some halides and GO BIG! :) I'm determined to have a nice SPS tank someway somehow.

[Big_Pun]

sps is hard on small tanks. i like the nano kit on emilys 27 cube. im going back to a few zeo products on my 150 soon

[ramsey]

sps is hard on small tanks. i like the nano kit on emilys 27 cube. im going back to a few zeo products on my 150 soon

SPS is hard on big tanks too! I hear what you're saying though. It's easier to have swings on a small tank.

Yeah, let me know how it goes on your 150g. I'm curious about the colors I'll get and if I'll be able to tweak them. I have to say, I've seen some really nice zeo tanks but I've also seen some washed out ones.

[ramsey]

Just a quick update on the tank. My SPS colors have been amazing! I tried to get pics but it was too blue. I'll have to turn the blues down on my lights and try to get some pics. I have frags from cunareefer on RC coming in on Thursday so that might be a good day to get pics. I learned that potassium is an important parameter to check/dose. My monti caps were pale and I started dosing K and the color came back with a vengeance! Again, I'm REALLY happy with coloration.

I do have one issue and that's growth. Growth has been better the past couple of weeks so I'm not changing anything, but I'm not sure if it's where I want it to be. I've been chasing colors for a while so next up is growth. I did turn up my light and set a high intensity mid day cycle that lasts a couple of hours. I'm gonna see what happens over the next couple of months. If I don't see the growth I want, I might switch to MH. I LOVE the radion and know that it does grow SPS and it's possible to get since coloration. However, I'm not sure if they grow SPS as well as MH. The has been a lot of posts from SPS keepers that are switching back. The thought of replacing bulbs makes me very tired though so it's something I'm considering. If I can get decent growth from the radion, I won't switch. If growth doesn't improve a bit, I probably will make the switch. I'm still deciding if I want growth over no bulb changes, cool features and customized color spectrums. It's a tough choice...

I've been testing the big three and so far, I haven't had a need to dose. I'm expecting this to change soon. I'm mostly sold on dosing pumps and most likely the balling lite method. It's still up in the air, but the thought of dialing in a calc reactor and possibly crashing my tank is scary. I feel like a good dosing pump will be more precise.

Apart from that, space is becoming a premium in the tank. Once I add the new SPS frags Thursday, I'll be pretty well stocked. It kinda sucks and gives me a slight upgrade itch, but come Thursday I'll have most of the SPS I've wanted. There will still be space for a couple of encrusting monti's and maybe some zoas, which is good because there's still a couple of those on my list. Also, once I move stuff to the 185, I'll probably add a clam. I leaning towards a squamosa.

I promise my next update will be brief and loaded with pictures! :)

[ramsey]

Managed to get some decent top down pics of the tank tonight. Still too blue, but better. I think I'm going to make a custom light profile on my apex just for taking pictures. If I turn the switch on, it'll have my radion dial down the blue.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/23/8e8e5yge.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/23/3etaha5e.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/23/4e6uhevu.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/23/davagamu.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/23/6ysynu7y.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/23/9y4yma9y.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/23/ena9u4up.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/23/runa7asy.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/23/umyhutuz.jpg

[Zack]

Nice dude! If you ever frag any of the SPS, lmk! Glad everything is coloring up :)

[350gt]

Looks good..

[ramsey]

Everything's going great in the tank. I started dosing tech m to kill some bryopsis and certain SPS exploded. I'll try to get some pics soon. Also, I converted the middle chamber of my intank media basket into a refugium. It's small, but I hope it helps with the little bit of algae I get in the display. I had an IM magnet LED light laying around so I put it to use. So far I'm just growing some weird green stringy macro (almost looks like a type of chaeto). We'll see how that goes and if it's not growing very fast, I'll be switching to chaeto. Looking at early pictures in this thread of the stubber blue stag, it amazes me how much growth I've had. It has to be 4-5x the size.

[ramsey]

FTV 03/14:

http://youtu.be/ZDl5TdwkAhU

[1seahorse]

Wow! Tank is looking awesome! It's been a while since I've been on here, your tank has just boomed since last time I saw the pics!

[ramsey]

Wow! Tank is looking awesome! It's been a while since I've been on here, your tank has just boomed since last time I saw the pics!

Thanks! There's been even more growth since the last update. I'm really happy with how it's going. I'll have to try and get some more pics or another video posted.

[nanoman28g]

Nice tank. More FTS please!

[ramsey]

Nice tank. More FTS please!

Thanks, it's about that time for new FTS. I'll try to get something up in the next few days.

[ramsey]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/23/dyduse5e.jpg

[Dean]

Awesome colors Ramsey. It looks great!

[LuckySingh]

Side awesome

[350gt]

Top downs are always nice!

[350gt]

Whats the pink sps? I want some..

[Big_Pun]

Whats the pink sps? I want some..

ya that's a nice stick

[mkengr45]

ya that's a nice stick

Huhuh...trying to behave myself, but your just setting me up to misbehave with a comment like that.

I'll just say I agree that is "a nice stick".

How is the growth going on that appleberry? Mine has had typical encrusting monti growth rate. Pretty tank man.

[ramsey]

Thanks gents. The pink stick is ORA red planet I got from Allan. For whatever reason, it's almost all bright pink with a hint of mint green in some places. I think it's because it's so high up in the tank.

The apple berry grows really slow there for some reason. The colors are great but it just grows pretty slow for me. It might be the really high light as well, I'm not sure.

I took a quick top down because I didn't want you to see how dirty the glass is at the moment and it hid my patch of bryopsis that seems to be creeping back in. :P I need to start he tech m treatment again.

[mkengr45]

That's the pinkest red planet I've ever seen. I've got two colonies of it in different spots in my tank and they are both more of a raspberry with green near the base. Heck of a planet ya got there.